MCC tour of Australia in 1962-63

The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of Australia in 1962–63 under the captaincy of Ted Dexter was its thirteenth since it took official control of overseas tours in 1903-1904. The touring team played as England in the 1962–63 Ashes series against Australia, but as the MCC in all other games. In all there were 27 matches; 5 Test matches (which they drew 1–1), 11 other First Class matches (which they drew 3–3) and 11 minor matches (which they won 8–0). The batting of Ted Dexter proved to be a considerable draw and it was financially the most successful tour since 1946–47.

The MCC team were the first not to travel to Australia entirely by ship. Instead they flew to Aden and boarded the luxury liner Canberra on its maiden voyage to Australia, which became an 11-day cocktail party, with Tom Graveney in charge of the bar and Graveney, Ted Dexter, Ken Barrington, Colin Cowdrey, Ray Illingworth and Fred Trueman forming the Marylebone Calypso Club, much to the amusement of the other passengers. Dexter found that the British Olympic long distance runner Gordon Pirie was on board (the Commonwealth Games were being held in Perth, Western Australia in November 1962) and got him to arrange keep fit classes for the team and runs around the deck in return for a first class berth. Trueman first avoided these by dodging down a corridor as short-cut and when was discovered threatening to throw Pirie overboard. He complained to the assistant-manager Alec Bedser that he had just bowled a thousand overs for Yorkshire, was the best fast-bowler in the world and did not need extra training, Bedser agreed and Trueman was excused. The team also needed to sign autographs for an hour each day, but Trueman's occasionally fell out of a porthole. The Canberra docked at Colombo for a one-day game, where David Sheppard made 73 and Ray Illingworth took 5/59. The Duke of Norfolk joined them here with three of his daughters "You may dance with my daughters. You may take them out and wine them and dine them, but that is all you may do", though Colin Cowdrey later married Lady Anne Elizabeth Fitzalan-Howard. The team arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia on 9 October, where they met Brian Statham, who had flown in the day before. Pirie wrote a press article to the effect that the England team were lazy, unfit and overweight; Dexter wrote an article in response, announcing that he hoped that his team would make 60 runs an hour and bowl 15 overs an hour on the tour, an ambitious target and one that he would fail to meet, though the England run rate of 39 runs per 100 balls was the highest since the war (Australia managed 41 per 100 balls). Dexter donated the fee from his article to a team kitty, to be shared amongst the players. Trueman's inflammatory remarks to The Sydney Morning Herald (he wondered if they would be playing under Jockey Club rules - referring to the Duke of Norfolk's interest in horse-racing - or going on a Church Mission - because the Reverend David Sheppard was on the tour) went down badly with the MCC. As the most colourful of the England players Trueman was offered eight times his tour fee of £250 to give after-dinner speeches and endorse products. On being told that if he did he would have to give the money to the kitty, he turned down the offer, annoyed by the fact that Susan Dexter was supposedly earning more from her modelling work than any of the cricketers. Though Trueman struck up a friendship with the Duke, Bedser was a stickler for team discipline and Trueman would be docked his £50 good conduct bonus at the end of the tour.

...
Wikipedia